(Daily Caller) Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.

“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.”

The ERRP, which Republicans call a slush fund, provides taxpayer money to Obama administration-selected states, companies and labor unions with already-in-place early retiree health insurance programs, and aims to make certain that their employees who retire early still have health insurance coverage before they reach Medicare eligibility age. Almost $2 billion of the $5 billion fund, which was supposed to last until 2014, has already been distributed to corporations. New projections expect the funding to run out before the end of 2012, if not sooner.

UPDATE (04.06.2011) h/t John in ‘comments’

ObamaCare Strokes The Fat Cats

(NY Post) When government says it’s set to do something for the little guy, hang on to your wallet.

The latest evidence for this came in a congressional report released last week, showing that the seniors lobby (and insurance giant) AARP stands to make more than $1 billion as a result of ObamaCare.

The game works this way: The new health-care law contains more than $136 billion in cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, which now covers one in five seniors. As a result, according to Medicare’s chief actuary, at least 7 million seniors will be forced out of their Medicare Advantage plan and back into traditional Medicare.

But since traditional Medicare lacks several Medicare Advantage benefits, many will have to buy so-called “Medigap” policies to make up the difference. And who’s the nation’s largest marketer of Medigap plans? The AARP.

The AARP isn’t the only big ObamaCare winner to come to light in the last few days. A hearing by the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations disclosed that labor unions and big businesses — including General Electric, Verizon, AT&T and IBM — have received nearly $1.9 billion in payments under the new health-care law to help offset health-insurance costs for early retirees.

The biggest single recipient: the United Auto Workers, which got nearly $207 million in taxpayer money. By the time the feds finish handing out funds to well-connected companies and unions, it’s expected to have cost taxpayers $5 billion.

The program doesn’t even require companies or unions to demonstrate any “financial need” for the subsidy. As a result, it enables companies to incentivize early retirement for older employees, saving the companies money and improving their balance sheets — with taxpayers footing the bill.

UPDATE (08.22.20212) MSNBC Funded By Stimulus

(Fox) The Obama administration paid a PR firm nearly $500,000 in stimulus funds to run a barrage of ads on White House-friendly cable programs promoting its green job training program.

According to government records, the Labor Department paid the money in late 2009 to a company that negotiated a media buy on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The ad was set to run more than 100 times — 14 times a week for two months.

It’s unclear how many people might have gotten involved in the green job training program because of the ads. But in terms of direct economic impact, the official online entry on the contract listed zero jobs created as a result of the payment.

[...] how incompetent and ideologically driven his administration is. There are too many people who would rather watch Joy Behar’s ineffectual interview with Helen Thomas, who continue to watch MSNBC’s idiotic news programs [...]

ahaha so the “bribe” is that retirees, ie people who no longer work for the M-M-M-MSM are being insured. NOO!!!!! ive got news for you, the same thing is happening at wsj, limbaughs show and fox news. got any other controversies for me?

the president is a muslim -- SQUAWK
the recovery is anemic -- BCAWWW
we need Common Sense™ solutions -- polly want a cracker
im not racist, but…trayvon was martin was a GANGSTER WHO DID POT, KILL HIM. -- WEE-HOO

What a crock of twisted implication!!! This site and author are obviously very ignorant of all payments or knowingly is implying something other than true. If anyone goes to any source that shows all payments from ERRP such as http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/12092011/errp_disbursement_12_02_2011_508.pdf
will seev that many conservative “entities” have collected more than the Post or CBS. Does that blogger believe that all of these are working for Obama too? Must be what author believes, since whole article claims these two are in Obama’s pocket because of amount.

Hope readers are not all so ignorant that they do not check every so called “fact” and “subjective judgment” regardless of who said it -liberal or conservative. All these writers lomg ago gave up either their honesty or their ethics

[...] about this for a minute. THINK! Nearly every ‘news’ story that comes out of government-subsidized MSM propaganda machines is laced with this degree of manufactured emotion and tripe. Yet folks pay to [...]

[...] yourself has no business reporting facts that contradict Big Brother’s Ministry of Truth (aka government-subsidized MSM). I should know. I was personally contacted/threatened by Safelink 2 years ago for reporting on [...]

[...] hey, let’s disregard wisdom-spewing Ronald since our Marxist government, their subsidized ‘main’stream media and this nation’s history-ignoring Leftists need you to believe that guns will be [...]

Medicare offers all enrollees a defined benefit. Hospital care is covered under Part A and outpatient medical services are covered under Part B. To cover the Part A and Part B benefits, Medicare offers a choice between an open-network single payer health care plan (traditional Medicare) and a network plan (Medicare Advantage, or Medicare Part C), where the federal government pays for private health coverage. .:,’